Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computers, and more particularly to a method, system, and computer program product for intelligent dump suppression in a computing environment.
Description of the Related Art
The majority of businesses in the world today use computers and computer systems to store and manage information. In the context of administering computer systems, various mechanisms have been put into place to provide for the collection of documentation in the event of an error. In computer speak, the process of transferring data associated with the error from one location to another location where the data is collected, diagnosed, and analyzed is referred to as a dump.
While it is generally beneficial to collect documentation in the case of a received error, in some cases this collection may be undesirable for various reasons. For example, data collection for a particular error may be duplicative, in that the error, or a similar error, was already received and documented adequately. In the z/OS® operating system environment, clients suppress dumps with a Dump Analysis and Elimination (DAE) utility. DAE uses a symptom string to determine when a dump should be suppressed. The symptom string is made up of several basic components, including the failed load module name, failing control section (CSECT) name, and optional items such as a completion, return or reason code.
Mechanisms such as DAE are effective for filtering out failures that share the same external symptoms. However, there are other circumstances not accounted for in the DAE methodology that may cause dumps to be suppressed that may have actually been useful in problem diagnosis.